Vietnam's Main Attraction

GUESS WHAT? IT'S ME ME ME ME ME!

Eunice photoshop me as... you know... Vietnam's main attraction.. because I'm too awesome!

*Picture of me being Khmer in Cambodia xD

It's been so long since I posted anything new, but hey I'm back! A little busy in the past couple of weeks. "Stay The Night" the film is going great and we will launch at short SStuFF - the Saigon Students Festival on the 12 of April - 6pm. Buy your ticket at AISSAIGON -21 Pham Ngoc Thach - only 30,000vnd to see different short films from many schools in saigon. Come and support me :D

Anyway, so that was what taking so much time from me. Other stuff include: assignments, homework and a MAJOR math test tomorrow! Although I've been lazy and doing some "creative" little things.

I'll see you soon!

Back from Cambodia!

I'm back from the beautiful kingdom of Cambodia, more like 4 days ago.

Post for the tattoo I drew and for the photos I took. It was such a wonderful trip and so much love and enjoyment. Of course like all time, I love spending time with these beautiful kids. It filled my heart with so much love, so much happiness. I have no word to describe how I feel but amazing and awesome.

I haven't catch much sleep back from those 4 days waking up early (4 something...) to charge camera 's battery. I'm not complaining about looking after cameras, I like having things occupied me... haha Well, I have more books, great movies and awesome clothes plus super duper awesome memories. Check the site to find out more about our days!

I better catch some sleep because I have been stressed out the whole week. Artistic photography from the trip will be on the next post.

Overloaded?

A lot of homework!

Yup.

With the film shoot last week, catching up is a bit of a hectic...

Well no, of course not that much compare to "PROPERLY BUSY" people. Besides, I think I should work harder anyway xD.

5 times electricity BOOM OFF AND ON AND OFF AND ON... I was sleepless and have been annoying people 2 days now, by my non-stop-hyper-talking! Seriously, my head is going to explode anytime soon... (Obviously not now because I'm still bla-bla-ing here =.=)

Anyhow, I finally find out how to connect my ipod to TV. I don't get why I can't connect my mac. It wouldn't open...

So anyway, I'm preparing to come back to Cambodia again this weekend to spend lots and lots of time with all the beautiful kids. *big smile*

Wait wait, before I go off... errrm... I want to try this new say:

Ta ta for now! xD Pathetic?

I dreamed a dream...

I just thought I share some thoughts of my own here.

It's December and Christmas is coming. But, I have no Christmas' spirit this year. I put on my little calendar book with "Christmas Card List" last wednesday. I haven't started yet and have no plan on starting this year.

My plan failed... I went Christmas shopping for Christmas presents to some kids in Cambodia. I had three boxes and I am going to put presents in for them. I've met the kids, played and had a wonderful wonderful time with them. It was the winter dance last night. Everyone seems to have fun, and my friends were asking me why didn't I go. I said - It's a waste of money! I saved that $20 to buy these presents for the little ones. I just think there has been to much for me and not much for them. I had $20. I can do something with it that would make the cuties happy and warm my heart up a little.So I went out this afternoon with Joshy and Eunice and we got baby stuff, soaps and toothbrushes. The box above is to a 4 years old girl - Ly Heang who is a little cambodian friend of mine.

I'm nervous sending these boxes to the kids. All I have for them is a little love that they need, a little thing that I can give and a box that I've painted. Gosh I miss them!

It took my quite some time to pain this box cover. It actually has two layers or more. I painted the box planning to spread the colour and mixed them with next one so it looks streamy. And I failed completely. Came home today, I tried to fix it by re painting the yellow part to red and then cover the blue and purple with white this time. The dress original was white but somehow it got mixed up with the purple and started looking very crappy so I repainted it with blue. The leaves idea flew out of no where when I stuck the butterfly on it. The hair was yellow stream to red but now it is black again because I like it!

Back from Cambodia

Me being silly on the bus.

One of the three mugs Daniel designed with a permanent pen. Ada = Amazing Dysfunctional Awesome! xDD my new nick name

My room buddy-old good friend- Fishy. We both got a fish mug together and a bell "ring ring" bracelet :D

The kids (more coming)

“Look into it, and expect the unexpected.”

These were my words before I sat on the bus and set off to Cambodia. What can I say? Was it one experience to remember? I was amazed with just how much have changed from what was in my memory. Ask me how was Cambodia? And I would say “Awesome!”. It was one unexpected and a surprisingly amazing experience for me.

The kids with broadly bright smile were the best and bestest part of the trip. I’ve got all these girls giving me lots and lots of hugs and kisses, and all the boys teaching me this cool hand shake and heaps of “Hi-5”. They are just the happiest kids on earth!

I was happy to hear from the teachers, who were cambodians and were so inspiring as for how long and how much they love teaching the kids.

At Steung Mencheay, I made friends with these group of beautiful smiles and confident kids who would come up and grabbed my arms immediately as I step my feet into the small primary school. HELLO! They waved, they asked questions in Enlish, they smile and they were absolutely gorgeous, lovable and delightful to see. “What’s your name?”, “How are you?”, “How old are you?” - Srey Leak is my best friend here. She taught me games, and as for more she taught me words in Khmer (even though I can barely remember anything) We had fun playing games, and sharing a little of our culture through different games we played and a little knowledge of language.

The Kais village Orphanage, where I had way too much fun with cute babies and these four adorable girls. The babies were perhaps for most of us the greatest experience. But for me, after putting two cuties to sleep, running wild with four little adorably cheeky girls was the best thing to do. They inspired my heart so much, we played “Duck, Duck, Goose” and even a game that I made up. The little ones enjoyed swinging in my hand as much as dancing with me in the wind and speaking ridiculously in some language we don’t even know. The grass was green, the ground was comfy and the wind blew our mind off just so we had too much fun.

I couldn’t say goodbye to all these adorable, wonderful kids. I ended up with saying “Bye bye” and “See you again” so many times I can't count. Many hugs, many kisses, many “high-five”, and many byes. Srey Leak asked me “When do you come back?” and I shed tears trying desparately to find a way of answering that very question. I left with my heart missing them.

The food here were … well AWESOME! And not just that, the restaurants and café are always relaxing, inspiring and beautiful. There is somehow always something the customer can do. I bought many books in a café next to our hotel. I went in and look at many inspiring art gallery café. It was always a new experience to go in a restaurant, to look at their setting, their presentations, their food and their art. I love that we get to choose our restaurant for lunch to taste different food along with an amazing vegan restaurant. I also love the performance of monkeys dance with it uniqueness and entertainment. Tiny Toones performance was great to watch and was another great time for the kids at PIO. Art is expected as well as respected and preserved.

I would say Cambodians are religious, and it is one good thing that they are. The country is based on NGOs and very much tourists. Religions is something that should be kept for it gives faith into the people. Morning of the third day was as much horrible and sad as it is a great place to learn why and how Cambodians live and become who they are today. I’ve seen things like this, in Vietnam like Con Dao island prisons and more, but still the cruelty and babaric of Pol Pot went deep into my thought. I made a stop, and in slience I prayed. Look at the faces, look at the skulls, and what’s left of it. You ought to be feeling something. Is it sad or horrible?

We left with a different experience in everyone of us. The killing field was massive. I’m shocked of what’s in front of my eyes, one sleepless night.

My experience of Cambodia was inspiring, touching and aboslutely awesome! I will sure come the next time, to see the faces and smiles of beautiful kids (I miss them so much right now!) to enjoy the amazing taste of food, to spend great time with friends – a small but hilariously wonderful group and to getaway from school.

I didn’t have any issue with the smell or conditions the kids are eperiencing. It is probably not hygienic for us but to be realistic, there are worst places than this that I, myself have been to. I was just happy to see their smiling faces. I always love spending time with orphans for many reasons because they deserve more love from us than anyone else. They need people to appreciate them, so that they feel loved and show them the wonders of life. Being an orphan is hard and lonely enough. I love them because they always are happy, always with a smile and always sweet and touching. The bigger kids don’t get many chance to be adopted. They aren’t just the only one who learnt something new, they opened my eyes to many more things than I could’ve ever imagine. I just really wish we have more time in this stunning country! I want to see more, I want to spend more time with these kids and I want to go further to orphanage that don’t get much visitors, (might be far but it’s worthed to be reward the most amazing time with kids. I also want to learn more, about the people and to experience more of this gorgous country.

P/S: I don't know what to say so I'm putting my 500 words reflections on :) Cheers! (more than 500 words xD)

I don't have all the photos yet but I'll put more up soon !!!

Spectacular!

All packed and ready to go!

Spectacular!

I'm not even in Phnom Penh yet and I am already this happy. The wind is flickering my hair a little but it's all that my heart is happy.

I have often been ask why I get involved into so many activities and I guess I just feel happy doing something good. I feel the need to do these things. It makes me happy and it keeps me happy, a warm fuzzy feeling when you know you've done something good and that life is just beautiful.

I like to see the smile on someone face, the sound of laughter. And it is even more amazing when you are the one who make that happen! I know for each of us, the experience is distinctively different, but it warm up your heart and fill it to the top with happiness, right?

Don't you just love it?

If you ask me, I enjoy the quiet and meaningful of life.

See you in four days!

The City at Night

For today is the painting of the city at night.

A copy from my favourite artist- Georgia O'Keeffe- oil painting on canvas

(It looks a little different from the original too of course- I'm not a master of this kind)

I guess most of you guys know that I used to take some art classes and this is what they trained me for... This took me a whole MONTH or two (I don't remember) but it was really tiring! Though I really do like the painting I will not ever be able to do another one.

MUAHAHHAHAHA... XD Yes guys I've gone crazy now to announce you "HAPPY MOON FESTIVAL" is printed into cards and I'll passing them out soon :D for the guys that have been working hard of course :D yeah yeah yeah *dancing around in stupidity*

So finally I am going to Cambodia with the group. Meeting today with the BOSS was fine. The BOSS has a very wise knowledge of Cambodia of course because the BOSS little cutie aritist is from Cambodiaas well. The last time I've been to Cambodia was just to visit some famous tourist place and I was young to really understand the life there. It was like Vietnam 10 years ago, from what I remembered, may be worst than that. But I have to say, it's really hard to really have empathy for them. Of course you may have sympathy for them but I know it is hard to really have a real empathy of what they are experiencing after their bloody leader- the Pol Pot years... Anyway, I really hope to go there this time to gain a fuller understanding of the history there.

Oh btw, guess what!?!? Tomorrow is the arrival day of costumes!!! I will bring my camera to snap some pictures... Though I haven't been sleeping well not worry about how the costumes would look like and if it's ruined what will I do!?!? So I'm really scared... I hope they would come out well, because if anything happens I WILL ONLY HAVE BLOODY ONE DAY TO FIX IT!!! T-T

Good night it's already late :)